Close Menu

Put t'kettle on. It's time for a natter.

REVIEW: The Ninth Rain

I’ve hardly been quiet about how much I loved The Ninth Rain* but I still thought it deserved its own review over here on the blog.

If you didn’t already know, The Ninth Rain is a brilliantly creative fantasy by Jen Williams. It follows an unlikely trio who trek across the land to try and discover the truth about the mysterious alien invaders who have troubled their history for many years. The last such attack was the Eighth Rain, but the remnants of the battle can be found throughout the land. Strange things haunt The Wild and entire communities are trapped under the material known as varnish, never to live again.

Vintage, the leader of the ragtag group, is an eccentric academic and explorer, who has made it her life lesson to discover the invader’s secrets. She also happens to be filthy rich and so hires Tor for her protection. He is on the few survivors of a dying warrior race who left his home to avoid watching it perish. When they stumble on Noon, a fugitive fell witch with secrets of her own, their trio is complete. Together they try to piece together their broken history and worry about The Ninth Rain, the seemingly inevitable attack they have dreamt about.

This diverse cast of characters are from very different backgrounds so it was really interesting to see the way they mixed and learnt from one another. They certainly weren’t all on the same page in the early chapters! However, their camaraderie was infectious. It was their interactions that had me rooting for the three of them long after I had finished reading the book.

The Ninth Rain is rich in its world building and constructed history, which was absolutely fascinating. As the trio makes their way across the lands, they end up taking part in endless adventures.

Many of these ended up with quite comical moments that had me smirking as I read, which was an unexpected bonus that made me love the book all the more.

This book ended up being one that I really enjoyed, a lot more than I expected to. It is the perfect fantasy to escape with, as long as you like dangerous missions and deadly creatures thrown in to the written world you choose to escape with!